the minde of man and therefore Light for saith the definition Whatsoever doth manifest that is light Fourthly There is in all men a light within but not in your sense for although in Adams fall we were all totally darkness it self yet I say there is a light which enlighteneth every man which commeth into the World which is the Spirit of God the third Elohim and he doth write the effect of the Law of God in the hearts of all men from whence they do by nature the things contained in the Law which as saith the Text shew the effect of the Law written in their hearts and it was written to this end that from this Light within suitable to that Light without Gods Word namely the Scriptures they might come to Christ that he might give them life or on the contrary if then by custom in sin extinguish this light within this will leave them in their own Consciences without excuse as is at large amplified in all my three Treatises but your light within you is a lye and you have extinguished that good light which was written within you And you are become dead in sins and trespasses to come to Christ for you deny him and say the light in you is Christ and you deny the Scriptures to be Gods word you also deny the Trinity and consequently you deny God himself and therefore as our Saviour saith If the light that is in thee be darkness Mat. 6.23 how great is that darkness And now I come to the fifth general point which is you affirm the Scriptures are true as a witness-bearer or declarer of that light in man which you call Christ in answer to which I deny that the Scriptures are a witness-bearer to your light within which is your Idoll stiled by the several names aforesaid for if it should beare witness to your foolery it should witness it self to be no word of God and also that the Lord Jesus personally God-man blessed for ever more is not the Son of God and so it should contradict what it self affirms Also it should deny what it self affirms that is that Jehovah our Elohims is one Iehovah as doth your light within which Mystery of Iniquity you varnish over with the words of the Scriptures in an injurious and uncouth sense as do our Gipseys and Canting-beggars who leave their native language as do you the native sense of the Scriptures and onely use the termes and you had need put glorious titles upon it and when you have done all it is nothing else but a painted Sepulchre and nothing but stench and rottenness wherefore you gild it over with your sufferings and imprisonments writing your selves persecuted Saints truly if you and your Companions be Saints you are of the Pope or the Devils canonizing for I am sure that God never owned any man to be holy that ever denyed the holy Scriptures to be his word or that denyed the second Elohim to assume humane nature and so became personally God-man and to be his seventh meanes as is proved in my second Treatise or that ever denyed the Trinity which is to deny God himself Jehovah our Elohim to be one Jehovah And if the Lord Jesus Christ commanded Peter who was a Saint get thee behinde me Satan in reference to the temptation which Peter unawares tempted him unto then much more will he judge you to be the Children of the Devil whose works ye will do as did your Father the Devil when he alleaged the Scriptures to Christ tempting him to throw himself off from the Temple that he might destroy himself so you bring in the Scriptures a witness-bearer to the lying light within you but it is to destroy and dissolve the Scriptures from being Gods word to make that good that there is no sure word of God but that lying light of yours within you for you deny the second person in Trinity to be the increate word mentioned in 1 John 1. and the Scriptures to be Gods word also you deny the Trinity consequently you deny Jehovah our Elohims to be one Jehovah consequently you leave no God at all but your light within which you call by the name of God in divers places of your Book Lastly you affirm That Gods Word the Light in man was long before the Scriptures but having so largely proved this Word of God within you to be no more nor lesse then a lye this last point of yours needs no answer at all nevertheless I grant your Word of God to be long before the Scriptures were For your Father the Devil was a lyer from the beginning and it was long after the Devil was first a lyer Joh. 8.44 that Moses began the Scriptures and your quotations of Scripture in the margent of your Book are numerous and all is but to guild over your Idol Light within and although you give us number yet you give us no weight of truth even as you give us antiquity but no verity And although you undervalue the Antiquity of the Scriptures yet it declares a truth unto us more ancient then you or your Fathers lies that is what the Elohims speak each to other and said Let us make man in our Image Also it tells what God said to man having made him the Elohims said unto him Be fruitful and multiply and the Elohims said Behold I have given unto you every Tree bearing seed Gen. 1.26 27 28 29. Gen. 2.16 c. Jehovah Elohim commanded the man saying Of every Tree of the Garden c. Also the Scriptures tell us of divers things long before themselves were written That the Word of God after the fall was manifested to Adam and his Wife Gen. 3.8 9. and also that Jehovah manifested himself to Cain by his Word three times and also that the Word of Jehovah came to Noah Gen. 4.6.9 13. and so to Abraham and others I would ask you this Question Can your Light within tell you any of all this if the Scriptures had not told it first and yet you would fain make us beleeve that that Light is the onely word of God and Scripture and that is the reason you endevour so much to dissolve our Scriptures but in all this you do but wash the Blackamore and make a night-cap for the Moon for that which our Lord Jesus Christ saith shall stand firm Heaven and Earth shall passe away but my word shall not passe away And as he saith in the forecited Text Luk. 24.33 and the Scriptures cannot be dissolved And for all your Light within which you call your God and unbeleeve the Scriptures yet God will make his Word good upon you and all your Companions He that beleeveth shall be saved He that beleeveth not shall be damned Mar. 16.16 And truly whereas you put this title upon your Book The Resurrection of John Lilburn you should rather have put it thus The perverting of John Lilburn in order to his destruction if God
nature not meaning those former graces wrought in them by the word and Spirit of God But they fansie themselves to be the divine Essence essentially the one Iehovah this they name also by a light within them but do you be sure to make Christ your Religion who is personally God-man and none other and depend upon his righteousness imputed onely for Gods gift of eternal life Also beware ye destroy not that inherent righteousness which is in you for that is the Temple of the Holy Ghost Wherefore give all diligence to make your Calling and Election sure because God if you so do by an act of merciful justice will establish you and keep you that you shall never fall totally nor finally to be seemingly deified Angels of light but indeed and in truth Angels of darkness the Children of the Devil a cursed crew of Familists who scornfully despise the sacred Ministery of Jesus Christ stilling the holy Ministers Priests and the godly which wait at wisdoms gates to be taught by Christ by their Ministery they stile them Priest-ridden fellows and stile the sacred Oracles of God to be but a dead letter and from beneath therefore O you Saints of God which yet rightly beleeve take heed of turning your graces which God hath endued you with into wantonness by a filthy greedy covetousness under a proud formality in Religion to walk after the flesh for by the just judgement of God at this time upon the Churches of Christ for so doing from amongst you and of you do arise these monstrous blasphemous Beasts the most dangerous Antichrist that ever was within the confines of Christendom therefore I say take heed for there may a time come upon you that yet stand for quenching the Spirit and loosing your first love and for making ship-wrack of that Faith and Conscience that once was good and for destroying the Temple of God which is holy which Temple ye are he will destroy you And the Text subjoynes these words speaking to the Saints Let no man deceive himself because then you are in the high way to the impardonable sin and then ye shall never beleeve more the sacred truth of God though never so cleared unto you for then God will deny you the gift of faith and then your damnation sleepeth not though you should deny as do the Familists No man shall be damned or saved Judas shall be in as good a case as Peter for say they all shall be turned into the divine Essence of the one Jehovah yet know this that the one Jehovah will not deny himself in his word of truth but make his final end good upon all flesh except as is excepted that is the case of dying in infancy that is every man according to his works that he hath done in the body whether it be good or whether it be evil that is some to be Vessels of dishonour to eternity and some to be for honour to eternity And Heaven and Earth shall fail before one jot or tittle of this truth shall fall short of what God hath said for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it as at large is proved in the 12. Chapter of my second Treatise CHAP. XIII Containing an answer to Lieut. Col. John Lilburn his six particulars viz. FIrst You deny the Trinity Secondly You deny the Scriptures to be the word of God Thirdly You deny there is any word of God but that light which is in man Fourthly You affirm in your Book Pag. 16. that that light in man is as the light is in God himself in whom is no darkness at all Fifthly You affirm the Scriptures are true as a witness-bearer or declarer of that light in man which you call Christ Sixthly You affirm Gods word the light in man was long before the Scriptures To the first I answer and thus I prove the Trinity Hear O Israel the Lord our God is one Lord Deut. 6.4 and I told you the word Lord Deut. 6.4 twice in this Text was by the care of the Translators of the Bible ordered to be printed in Capital letters purposely to notifie unto the people that the word Lord in the Original was Jehovah as I have heard Doctor Gouge unfold many years agoe whereupon I told you that you must read the Verse thus Hear O Israel Jehovah our Elohims is one Jehovah so that here is Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity Also I told you Gen. 1.26 the Elohims spake each to other and said Let us make man c. and John in his first Epistle the 5th and the 7th saith There are three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and saith he These three are one here also is Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity suitable to that of Moses Jehovah our Elohims is one Jehovah as Mr. John Brain most learnedly unfolds against M. John Biddle's most grosse Doctrine of the Trinity and as he sayes to him so say I to you Deny this if you can As to the second I will prove the Scriptures to be Gods word which is that which declares the minde of God to man as amongst men our words convey one mans minde to another It is written Heb. 1.1 2. God who at sundry times 1 Joh 5.7 Heb. 1.1 2. in divers manners spake in time past unto the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last times spoken unto us by his Sonne Again When the Elohims had spake each to other saying Let us make man c. Here note by the way that because the Elohims thus spake each to other the Trinity cannot be as some dream that is Distinctions and Relations onely but really Existencies in the Essence of Jehovah for Distinctions and Relations are such as cannot speak Man being thus made God conveys his minde to mans minde by his word and said unto them Be fruitful and multiply likewise he said Gen. 1.1 26 28 29 Gen. 2.16 Gen. 3.9 Gen. 4.4 6 9 15. Gen. 6.13 Behold I have given you every Herb c. Likewise Gen. 2.16 Jehovah Elohim commanded the man saying c. Likewise after the fall Jehovah Elohim called to Adam and said unto him c. Likewise he conveyed his minde to Cains minde three times by his word Likewise Elohim said to Noah The end of all flesh is come before me So also he conveyed his minde to Noah and to his Sons with him Gen. 9.8 Gen. 13.13 14. Gen. 12.1 Numb 15.30 saying c. And so to Abraham Are not these words which these Scriptures speak Gods own words by which he conveyed his minde to the minde of these men but I pray you hearken what God speaks to all such as you are The soul that doth ought presumptuously whether he be born in the Land or a stranger the same reproacheth Jehovah and do not you reproach Jehovah when you deny these and other Scriptures to be his word Yet he further saith That soul shall be cut
must ground upon a lye and nothing else for you deny the increate word of God the second Elohim in Trinity Joh. 1.1 Who in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God And secondly You deny the Scriptures to be the word of God and so you leave the World no word of God but the light forsooth that is within you so much for your second point Thirdly you affirm There is no word of God but that light which is in man To this I need give no answer having proved a twofold word of God but because you did affirm your light within to be the word of God I desired you to prove it thereupon you alleaged the 1. of Iohn and the 1. Vers In the beginning was the word c. To which I answered That word which was with God and was God was the second Elohim in Iehovah or in the Trinity and he did create all things and without him was not any thing made that was made but what I pray you did that light within you create what were the things which it created and made for the Lord Jesus Christ himself who is personally God-man simply so created nothing that is as he is Christ yet you would have your light which you call Christ to be a creator of you know not what And because I affirm that the word that was with God and was God being the second person in Trinity this stirred up the light within you to deny the Trinity therefore I conclude that the light in you is darkness Yet neverthelesse I do grant that the Lord Jesus Christ as personally God-man the second Adam after the fall of the World by the first Adam immediately did as the faithful and true witness of God against the Apostate-Angels lies Rev. 3.14 as it were put a new Creation upon the works which God had made by virtue of his imputative righteousness interposing the imputative unrighteousness of Adam put the whole Creation in a travell until now from that bondage of corruption Rom. 8. to which it fell to be partakers of the glorious liberty of the Sons of God And this first Chapter of Iohn speaks to both that is what he did as he is the second Elohim in Iehovah and also to what he did as he was personally God-man Jesus Christ But what is all this to your Idoll light within which is your spiritual King Jesus and your Christ I and the same light which is in God himself I pray you let me ask you this question is not this to reproach Ichovah for you also attribute Creation to your light within so much to the third point Fourthly You affirm in your Book pag. 16. That that light in man is as the light is in God himself in whom is no darkness at all I answer This word light is a metaphor allluding to the light of this inferior Elementary World which light is not suitable to the reasonable soul of man nor spirits as Angels but to the eye of flesh as to man and beast yet no man certainly knowes what it is but in probability whether it be a quality a substance or a spirit therefore for its excellency the essence or nature of Iehovah is compared unto it the words are these God is light 1 Tim. 6.16 1 Joh. 1.5 in whom is no darkness at all who onely hath immortality dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto which no man hath seeen nor can see to whom be honour and power everlasting Amen Yet in your Book pag. 15. you affirm that this light which in the Text is the infinite Essence of God is the living and quickning holy or tender part of man the everlasting word of God by whom all things were made But herein you fall just with the Familists that the Essence of God is the tender part of man but as to those your elder Brethren in evill I have answered this point formerly in this very Treatise Pag. 19.27 And also in my second Treatise from pag. 104. to 108. Nevertheless I will say something of this point to you also And first I grant that this increate light the Essence of Jehovah our Elohims is in all men and in all things but not in your sense as to be any part of the nature of man or of any thing else for it is in him that we and all things else do live and move and have our being for as nothing is able to include him so is it impossible that he should be excluded by any thing But I pray you here take notice That although the sacred Essence of God be within and without all men yet this no way conduces to the happiness of man as you ignorantly affirm in several places of your Book and in pag. 19. it is affirmed to be the very principle of all true Religion I pray you is it such a principle to the Devills and all damned Creatures for their being life and motion is in him He that is being it self is the bottom of the being of all created nature and so it is of good and bad men to continue them to be happy or to be tormented to eternity otherwise they would all fall to nothing by an annihilation But God for his final ends sake will so continue them for ever now what that final end is I refer you to my second Treatise and thus for his final ends sake he upholds the Earth which hangs by nothing as saith the Text that is by no created thing and the Text saith He sitteth upon the Circle of the Earth and the truth is his infinite Essence is not only in and thorough all created Natures and Worlds but also his intrinsicall glory extends far beyond them all and he is where they are not nor any created thing ever were for in his intrinsical glory they all adde nothing unto him who is Jehovah our Elohims our own Jehovah and is this that which you call the tender part of man and so his happiness as you childishly affirm not knowing what you say Again I answer and grant It is a great happiness unto a godly mind to know and possess this infinite light which is both within and without us as he is pleased to stoop to our capacities as appeares Joh. 1.1 speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ personally God-man he saith That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen which wee have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life Here note that John had heard and seen Christ looking upon him and handled Christ by being in his Company But your Idoll Christ your light your everlasting word that same tender part of man was never visible but invisible for you say it is within so that you nor any man else can say what it is except a whimsey But in the second verse Iohn complains himself further saying the life was manifested we have